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"The May devotion in its present form originated at Rome where Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, to counteract infidelity and immorality among the students, made a vow at the end of the eighteenth century to devote the month of May to Mary. From Rome the practice spread to the other Jesuit colleges and thence to nearly every Catholic church of the Latin rite. This practice is the oldest instance of a devotion extending over an entire month. Indulgences, three hundred days each day, by assisting at a public function or performing the devotion in private, plenary indulgence on any day of the month or on one of the first eight days of June under the usual conditions (Pius VII, 21 March, 1815, for ten years; 18 June, 1822 in perpetuum)." ~ New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia

Before I post the links to the recipes in honor of the various feast days celebrated this month, here are some ideas from the archives in Honor of Our Lady:

Charlotte has created the most wonderful May Crowning Feast inspired by some of Our Lady's Titles in the Litany of Loreto:

"The mood of springtime informs the church's interior; nature's blossoming, the warm air of May evenings, human gladness in a world that is renewing itself -- all these things enter in. Veneration of Mary has its place in this very particular atmosphere, for she, the Virgin, shows us faith under its youthful aspect, as God's new beginning in a world that has grown old. In her we see the Christian life set forth as a youth-fulness of the heart, as beauty and a waiting readiness for what is to come."

Visit Charlotte's blog, Waltzing Matilda, to see pictures of their Garden Party for this week. I just love that her girls choose having this week's Good Shepherd's Garden Party as their special dinner following their piano recital! My children would probably do the same... It's amazing how much our children all love and enjoy these special extra celebrations during the Easter season!

I decided to complicate things this weekend, completely changing our menu, and choose various breakfast items to create a Sunday Brunch. It ended up being more work than I thought it would be, but worth the extra effort. You can see all of our pictures over at Shower of Roses.

Now it's your turn! How did you and your family celebrate this third week of Easter? We'd love to see pictures and hear about how you modified our Good Shepherd's Garden Party for your family, or incorporated any of our other ideas(whether you choose daily activities or just one party for the week) into your celebration. Also, anyone who would like to share food related posts from this year's Feast of St. Joseph the Worker (May 1) or Good Shepherd Sunday is welcome to join as well!

To Participate:

1. Create a post about your Good Shepherd's Garden Party or activities for the second week of Easter. (Or any food related posts for St. Joseph the Worker and Good Shepherd Sunday.)
2. Using the linky below, enter the exact link to your post.
3. Add a link your post, referring back to this post so that others can find the party as well! (Please feel free to include the Good Shepherd's Garden Party Button if you'd like!)
4. Be sure to visit the links and see how everyone else has been celebrating!
5. The linky will be open until next Monday when we add a new one for Week 4.

A few years ago Barbara posted a recipe for St. Gregory's Cherries and shared the legend of Pope Gregory the Great and his longing for cherries on St. Mark's feast day. You can read more about the legend in her post. Since today, April 25, is the feast of St. Mark, I thought I'd share another recipe using cherries. This is a very easy recipe to make, and perfect for any children that like to help in the kitchen. My girls made these last month, when studying the state of Virginia, and everyone agreed that they turned out scrumptious!

Beat egg and add a tsp of water to make egg wash, then brush top of pastry with the egg wash.

Bake at 375 until golden brown and allow pastries to cool. Enjoy!

Be sure to check the archives for additional recipes for the today's feast of St. Mark. And if you end up making something special, be sure to take pictures to share in this week's link up!

O Glorious St. Mark, through the grace of God our Father, you became a great Evangelist, preaching the Good News of Christ. May you help us to know Him well so that we may faithfully live our lives as followers of Christ. Amen.

Charlotte and I both ended up making a modifications to this week's menu (as we encourage you all to do as needed, or just for fun!) to better suit our families as we battle some busy schedules and sickness.

Now it's your turn! How did you and your family celebrate this second week of Easter? We'd love to see pictures and hear about how you modified our Good Shepherd's Garden Party for your family, or incorporated any of our other ideas(whether you choose daily activities or just one party for the week) into your celebration. Also, anyone who would like to share food related posts from the Feast of St. George (April 23rd) or the Feast of St. Mark (April 25th) is welcome to join as well!

To Participate:

1. Create a post about your Good Shepherd's Garden Party or activities for the second week of Easter. (Or any food related posts for St. George and/or St. Mark.)
2. Using the linky below, enter the exact link to your post.
3. Add a link your post, referring back to this post so that others can find the party as well! (Please feel free to include the Good Shepherd's Garden Party Button if you'd like!)
4. Be sure to visit the links and see how everyone else has been celebrating!
5. The linky will be open until next Monday when we add a new one for Week 3.

Instead of using the recipe in the archives (which we do love and bake each year on Santa Lucia Day), my oldest daughter and I ended up making the Italian Easter Bread from The Italian Dish. The bread ended up being much easier to make than I expected and turned out beautifully! It bakes up incredibly soft and sweet, and reminded my children of the Portuguese sweet rolls they enjoy at our local St. Anthony's Festa each year. We will be making these again, for sure!

Italian Easter Bread

Ingredients:

1 package (2 1/4 ) teaspoons instant yeast

1 1/4 cups warm milk

pinch of salt

1/3 cup butter, at room temperature

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup sugar

3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups flour (I actually ended up using 5 cups)

1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water

6 dyed, uncooked, Easter eggs (will cook in the oven)

sprinkles

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the yeast, milk, salt, butter, eggs and sugar. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. With the mixer set to a low speed and switching to the dough hook attachment (or by hand), continue adding flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Knead until smooth. Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 1-inch by 14-inch rope.

Taking two pieces, twist to form a "braid," then join the ends to loop into a circle, pinching the tips together.

Place on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover with a clean towel and let rise again until nearly doubled, about 1 more hour. (We accidentally skipped this second rise, but they still turned out okay... The eggs just didn't stick out as well.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush each dough "nest" with the beaten egg wash.

Decorate with the sprinkles.

In the middle of each bread ring, gently place an Easter egg, making an indentation with the egg. Place one egg in the center of each nest, pressing down lightly to secure.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Note: Be sure to either refrigerate or discard the eggs, if not eaten within a couple hours.

Note: You can find a Spanish Version of this week's readings for the Garden of the Good Shepherd, along with our Garden Party Plans, over at Familia Católica.

Now it's your turn! How did you and your family celebrate this first week of Easter? We'd love to see pictures and hear about how you modified our Good Shepherd's Garden Party for your family, or incorporated any of our other ideas(whether you choose daily activities or just one party for the week) into your celebration. Also, anyone who would like to share any food related posts from Divine Mercy Sunday is welcome to join as well!

To Post:

1. Create a post about your Good Shepherd's Garden Party or activities for the first week of Easter. (Or any food related posts for Divine Mercy Sunday.)
2. Using the linky below, enter the exact link to your post.
3. Add a link your post, referring back to this post so that others can find the party as well! (Please feel free to include the Good Shepherd's Garden Party Button!)
4. Be sure to visit the links and see how everyone else has been celebrating!
5. The linky will be open until next Monday when we add a new one for Week 2.Pin It

This beautiful cake was submitted by Cynthia Engle, in honor of today's feast of Divine Mercy. Thank you Cynthia!

Anyone can make this cake. All you need is a cross cake mold, cupcake pans, letter shaped cookie cutters and a little imagination. The cross cake was baked in a Wilton Cross Cake mold, easily accessible at any craft store selling Wilton products. It is also available at various internet sites.

We covered the cake in white fondant, but you can frost it with your favorite icing if preferred. The lily is made from pressed gum drops. If you are not adept at sugar flowers, you can either forgo this step or buy a commercial decoration that fits the theme. The rays are mini cupcakes, frosted and then sprayed with Wilton color spray or red and blue. You can also just use food coloring in your icing, but the spray gives it a more ethereal image. The cupcakes surrounding the cake are full sized cupcakes with “Jesus I Trust In You” spelled out with letters cut from pressed gum drops with letter cookie cutters. An alternative is to cut and bake cookie letters and place those on the full sized cupcakes. We chose to use three different flavors for the Cross, the mini cupcakes and the full sized cupcakes, but you can use one flavor, using commercial cake mixes or a favorite homemade cake of you own choosing.

Arrange the mini cupcakes in cascading rays along the side of the cross and arrange the larger cupcake with the letters to form the message around the cake or wherever it fits best in your space.
This is a little time consuming, but very easy and extremely impressive when served.

I hope you all had a very Happy Easter Sunday, and that you continue to have a blessed and joyous Easter Season!

For those of you with children, a couple years ago Charlotte and I put together plans for celebrating the 50 days of Easter with a weekly Good Shepherd Garden Party for our children and would love for you to join us! The recipes and Bible readings for the first two weeks can be viewed and downloaded here and here, and you can also find all sorts of additional ideas by visiting everyone's past parties in the link-ups. Charlotte has also illustrated a set of 50 printable symbols, for anyone that wasn't able to order a Sticker Calendar or, like my children, would like to color their own set, in addition to using the daily stickers!

Beginning next Monday (and continuing each Monday throughout the Easter season) we will post a link-up, here at Catholic Cuisine, for whoever would like to share the pictures from each week's Garden Party and/or other great feasts during the Easter season!

Here is the Link-up Schedule for this year:

April 16 - 1st Garden Party; Divine Mercy Sunday

April 23 - 2nd Garden Party; Feasts of St. George, St. Mark

April 30 - 3rd Garden Party; Good Shepherd Sunday; Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

May 7th - 4th Garden Party

May 14th - 5th Garden Party

May 21st - 6th Garden Party; Feast of the Ascension

May 28th - 7th Garden Party; Feast of Pentecost

As we begin this Easter season, we would love to see your Easter Sunday Celebrations! Please post your pictures (and/or favorite Easter recipes) and add the link to the link-up below.

We give thee thanks, almighty God, for all your benefits, who livest and reignest forever and ever. Amen.

May the Lord grant us His peace. And life everlasting. Amen.

Alternate conclusion:And may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

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